Nikhil Banerjee - Performing Career

Performing Career

After Maihar, Banerjee embarked on a concert career that was to take him to all corners of the world and last right up to his death. All through his life he kept taking lessons from Ustad Allauddin Khan and his children, Ustad Ali Akbar and Smt. Annapurna Devi. Perhaps reflecting his early upbringing, he always remained a humble musician, and was content with much less limelight than a player of his stature could have vied for. Even so, in 1968, he was decorated with the Padma Shri, and in 1974 received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Nikhil Banerjee frequently toured Europe and the USA, with prominent tabla players including Swapan Chaudhuri and Anindo Chatterjee.

Although he was often resident at the Ali Akbar College of Music in California he taught few pupils on a one-to-one basis, for his stated reason that he did not feel he had adequate time to devote to his students, as he was still learning and performing. He hoped that developing a proper disciple relationship with students would become possible later in his life, but, sadly, his early demise meant it did not happen. Nevertheless, a number of prominent sitarists have been influenced by his teaching and distinctive style.

Banerjee recorded only a handful of recordings during his lifetime but a series of live performance recordings continue to be released posthumously making sure that his musical legacy is preserved for posterity. He did not always enjoy recording within the confines of the studio, though his early studio recordings with EMI India such as Lalit, Purya Kalyan and Malkauns are now considered to be classic renditions of these ragas. The posthumous live albums, many of which were brought out around the turn of the 21st Century by Raga Records in New York, and Chhandadhara of Germany, are widely considered to be the finest documents of his playing. Many of his unpublished concert recordings are available which are testimony to his musical thought.

Nikhil Banerjee was in failing health through the 80s, having survived three heart attacks. On January 27, 1986, on the birthday of his younger daughter, at the relatively young age of 54, Nikhil Banerjee died of a fourth heart attack. At the time of his death, he was a faculty member at the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan title by the Government of India in the same year as his death.

He is survived by his wife Roma and two daughters. His younger daughter Debdutta/Arya is a model and actress in Kolkata.